This "exemplary social history" (Kirkus Reviews) is the first full-scale account of Central Park ever published. In rich detail, Elizabeth Blackmar and Roy Rosenzweig tell the story of Central Park's people - the merchants and landowners who launched the project; the immigrant and African-American residents who were displaced by the park; the politicians, gentlemen, and artists who disputed its design and operation; the German gardeners, Irish laborers, and Yankee engineers who built it; and the generations of New Yorkers for whom Central Park was their only backyards.

In tracing the park's history from the mid-nineteenth century to the present, Blackmar and Rosenzweig give us the history of New York. As they explain how politics, taxes and real-estate development influenced the park, they bring to life larger issues about the meaning of the word "public" in a democratic society.

"Ambitious and adventurous...A surprising and deeply social account of the park's contentious past. A powerful historical resource for the shape American public spaces have taken." - Susan G. Davis, The Nation